Effective punishment experiences : the need for a more comprehensive approach to conceptualising behavioural punishers and reinforcers in a road safety context

Determining what consequences are likely to serve as effective punishment for any given behaviour is a complex task. This chapter focuses specifically on illegal road user behaviours and the mechanisms used to punish and deter them. Traffic law enforcement has traditionally used the threat and/or receipt of legal sanctions and penalties to deter illegal and risky behaviours. This process represents the use of positive punishment, one of the key behaviour modification mechanisms. Behaviour modification principles describe four types of reinforcers: positive and negative punishments and positive and negative reinforcements. The terms ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ are not used in an evaluative sense here. Rather, they represent the presence (positive) or absence (negative) of stimuli to promote behaviour change. Punishments aim to inhibit behaviour and reinforcements aim to encourage it. This chapter describes a variety of punishments and reinforcements that have been and could be used to modify illegal road user behaviours. In doing so, it draws on several theoretical perspectives that have defined behavioural reinforcement and punishment in different ways. Historically, the main theoretical approach used to deter risky road use has been classical deterrence theory which has focussed on the perceived certainty, severity and swiftness of penalties. Stafford and Warr (1993) extended the traditional deterrence principles to include the positive reinforcement concept of punishment avoidance. Evidence of the association between punishment avoidance experiences and behaviour has been established for a number of risky road user behaviours including drink driving, unlicensed driving, and speeding. We chose a novel way of assessing punishment avoidance by specifying two sub-constructs (detection evasion and punishment evasion). Another theorist, Akers, described the idea of competing reinforcers, termed differential reinforcement, within social learning theory (1977). Differential reinforcement describes a balance of reinforcements and punishments as influential on behaviour. This chapter describes comprehensive way of conceptualising a broad range of reinforcement and punishment concepts, consistent with Akers’ differential reinforcement concept, within a behaviour modification framework that incorporates deterrence principles. The efficacy of three theoretical perspectives to explain self-reported speeding among a sample of 833 Australian car drivers was examined. Results demonstrated that a broad range of variables predicted speeding including personal experiences of evading detection and punishment for speeding, intrinsic sensations, practical benefits expected from speeding, and an absence of punishing effects from being caught. Not surprisingly, being younger was also significantly related to more frequent speeding, although in a regression analysis, gender did not retain a significant influence once all punishment and reinforcement variables were entered. The implications for speed management, as well as road user behaviour modification more generally, are discussed in light of these findings. Overall, the findings reported in this chapter suggest that a more comprehensive approach is required to manage the behaviour of road users which does not rely solely on traditional legal penalties and sanctions.

From words to integers and beyond in corporate life

Poets have a licence to couch great truths in succinct, emotionally powerful, and perhaps slightly mysterious and ambiguous ways. On the other hand, it is the task of academics to explore such truths intellectually, in depth and detail, identifying the key constructs and their underlying relations and structures, hopefully without impairing the essential truth. So it could be said that in January 2013, around 60 academics gathered at the University of Texas, Austin under the benign and encouraging eye of their own muse, Professor Rod Hart, to play their role in exploring and explaining the underlying truth of Yan Zhen’s words. The goals of this chapter are quite broad. Rod was explicit and yet also somewhat Delphic in his expectations and aspirations for the chapter. Even though DICTION was a key analytic tool in most chapters, this chapter was not to be about DICTION per se, or simply a critique of the individual chapters forming this section of the book. Rather DICTION and these studies, as well as some others that got our attention, were to be more a launching pad for observations on what they revealed about the current state of understanding and research into the language of institutions, as well as some ‘adventurous’, but not too outlandish reflections on future challenges and opportunities.

Much ado about nothing? Tracing the progress of innovations borne on enterprise social network sites

Enterprise social networks are organizationally bounded online platforms for users to interact with another and maintain interpersonal relationships. The allure of these technologies is often seen in intra-organizational communication, collaboration and innovation. How these technologies actually support organizational innovation efforts remains unclear. A specific challenge is whether digital content on these platforms converts to actual innovation development efforts. In this study we set out to examine innovation-centric content flows on enterprise social networking platforms, and advance a conceptual model that seeks to explain which innovation conveyed in the digital content will traverse from the digital platform into regular processes. We describe important constructs of our model and offer strategies for the operationalization of the constructs. We conclude with an outlook to our ongoing empirical study that will explore and validate the key propositions of our model, and we sketch some potential implications for industry and academia.

Intra-organizational information asymmetry in offshore ISD outsourcing

Purpose - Contemporary offshore Information System Development (ISD) outsourcing is becoming even more complex. Outsourcing partner has begun ‘re-outsourcing’ components of their projects to other outsourcing companies to minimize cost and gain efficiencies. This paper aims to explore intra-organizational Information Asymmetry of re-outsourced offshore ISD outsourcing projects. Design/methodology/approach - An online survey was conducted to get an overall view of Information Asymmetry between Principal and Agents (as per the Agency theory). Findings - Statistical analysis showed that there are significant differences between the Principal and Agent on clarity of requirements, common domain knowledge and communication effectiveness constructs, implying an unbalanced relationship between the parties. Moreover, our results showed that these three are significant measurement constructs of Information Asymmetry. Research limitations/implications - In our study we have only considered three main factors as common domain knowledge, clarity of requirements and communication effectiveness as three measurement constructs of Information Asymmetry. Therefore, researches are encouraged to test the proposed constructs further to increase its precision. Practical implications - Our analysis indicates significant differences in all three measurement constructs, implying the difficulties to ensure that the Agent is performing according to the requirements of the Principal. Using the Agency theory as theoretical view, this study sheds light on the best contract governing methods which minimize Information Asymmetry between the multiple partners within ISD outsourcing organizations. Originality/value - Currently, to the best of our knowledge, no study has undertaken research on Intra-organizational Information Asymmetry in re-outsourced offshore ISD outsourcing projects.

Virus resistance and gene silencing in plants can be induced by simultaneous expression of sense and antisense RNA

Many examples of extreme virus resistance and posttranscriptional gene silencing of endogenous or reporter genes have been described in transgenic plants containing sense or antisense transgenes. In these cases of either cosuppression or antisense suppression, there appears to be induction of a surveillance system within the plant that specifically degrades both the transgene and target RNAs. We show that transforming plants with virus or reporter gene constructs that produce RNAs capable of duplex formation confer virus immunity or gene silencing on the plants. This was accomplished by using transcripts from one sense gene and one antisense gene colocated in the plant genome, a single transcript that has self-complementarity, or sense and antisense transcripts from genes brought together by crossing. A model is presented that is consistent with our data and those of other workers, describing the processes of induction and execution of posttranscriptional gene silencing.

Hairpin RNAs derived from RNA polymerase II and polymerase III promoter-directed transgenes are processed differently in plants

RNA polymerase III (Pol III) as well as Pol II (35S) promoters are able to drive hairpin RNA (hpRNA) expression and induce target gene silencing in plants. siRNAs of 21 nt are the predominant species in a 35S Pol II line, whereas 24- and/or 22-nucleotide (nt) siRNAs are produced by a Pol III line. The 35S line accumulated the loop of the hpRNA, in contrast to full-length hpRNA in the Pol III line. These suggest that Pol II and Pol III-transcribed hpRNAs are processed by different pathways. One Pol III transgene produced only 24-nt siRNAs but silenced the target gene efficiently, indicating that the 24-nt siRNAs can direct mRNA degradation; specific cleavage was confirmed by 59 rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE). Both Pol II- and Pol III-directed hpRNA transgenes induced cytosine methylation in the target DNA. The extent of methylation is not correlated with the level of 21-nt siRNAs, suggesting that they are not effective inducers of DNA methylation. The promoter of a U6 transgene was significantly methylated, whereas the promoter of the endogenous U6 gene was almost free of cytosine methylation, suggesting that endogenous sequences are more resistant to de novo DNA methylation than are transgene constructs. Published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. Copyright © 2008 RNA Society.

Characterisation of a human skin equivalent model to study the effects of ultraviolet B radiation on keratinocytes

The incidences of skin cancers resulting from chronic ultraviolet radiation (UVR) exposure are on the incline both in Australia and globally. Hence, the cellular and molecular pathways associated with UVR-induced photocarcinogenesis urgently need to be elucidated, in order to develop more robust preventative and treatment strategies against skin cancers. In vitro investigations into the effects of UVR (in particular the highly-mutagenic UVB wavelength) have, to date, mainly involved the use of cell culture and animal models. However, these models possess biological disparities to native skin, which to some extent have limited their relevance to the in vivo situation. To address this, we characterised a 3-dimensional, tissue-engineered human skin equivalent (HSE) model (consisting of primary human keratinocytes cultured on a dermal-derived scaffold) as a representation of a more physiologically-relevant platform to study keratinocyte responses to UVB. Significantly, we demonstrate that this model retains several important epidermal properties of native skin. Moreover, UVB-irradiation of the HSE constructs was shown to induce key markers of photodamage in the HSE keratinocytes, including the formation of cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers, the activation of apoptotic pathways, the accumulation of p53 and the secretion of inflammatory cytokines. Importantly, we also demonstrate that the UVB-exposed HSE constructs retain the capacity for epidermal repair and regeneration following photodamage. Together, our results demonstrate the potential of this skin equivalent model as a tool to study various aspects of the acute responses of human keratinocytes to UVB radiation damage.

Production of transgenic rice with rice ragged stunt virus synthetic resistance genes

Rice ragged stunt virus (RRSV) is an important pathogen of rice affecting its cultivation in South and South East Asia. An approach based on pathogen derived resistance (PDR) was used to produce RRSV resistant rice cultivars. Sequences from the coding region of RRSV genome segments 7 and 10 (non-structural genes), and 5, 8 and 9 (structural genes) were placed in sense or antisense orientation behind the plant expression promoters CaMV35S, RolC, Ubil, Actl and RBTV. Rice cultivars Taipei 309 and Chinsurah Boro II were transformed by biolistic and/or Agrobacterium-mediated delivery of one or more of these PDR gene constructs. A large number of transgenic lines were produced from calli derived from mature or immature embryos, co-bombarded with the marker gene hph encoding hygromycin resistance and RRSV PDR genes or co-cultivated with strains having the binary vector containing these two genes. Both Mendelian and non-Mendelian segregations were observed in transgenic progeny, especially with transgenic lines produced by biolistics. Preliminary tests conducted in China on selected transgenic lines indicate that plants with RRSV segment 5 antisense PDR gene confer RRSV resistance.

The Relation between work motivation and project management success in case of temporary organizations : theoretical lenses

The purpose of this paper is to present theoretical lenses that explain the relation between work motivation and project management success in case of temporary organizations such as projects. This paper is a part of the larger research study that first empirically identifies the constructs of work motivation in case of temporary organizations, and then empirically determines the relation between work motivation, and project management success. In the current paper, we have briefly reviewed the theories of work motivation from the work design school. These theories are predominantly drawn from the industrial/ organizational psychology literature. Then, we have considered the recent research on Nine Schools of Project Management as a point of departure to review theory on project management success. These theoretical perspectives are drawn from project management literature. We then illustrate the points of overlap for the theories drawn from these two disciplines. This review helps us to position our research study within the industrial/ organizational psychology, and project management literature as a cross-discipline study.

Biopharming the SimpliRED™ HIV diagnostic reagent in barley, potato and tobacco

This is the first report of an antibody-fusion protein expressed in transgenic plants for direct use in a medical diagnostic assay. By the use of gene constructs with appropriate promoters, high level expression of an anti-glycophorin single-chain antibody fused to an epitope of the HIV virus was obtained in the leaves and stems of tobacco, tubers of potato and seed of barley. This fusion protein replaces the SimpliRED™ diagnostic reagent, used for detecting the presence of HIV-1 antibodies in human blood. The reagent is expensive and laborious to produce by conventional means since chemical modifications to a monoclonal antibody are required. The plant-produced fusion protein was fully functional (by ELISA) in crude extracts and, for tobacco at least, could be used without further purification in the HIV agglutination assay. All three crop species produced sufficient reagent levels to be superior bioreactors to bacteria or mice, however barley grain was the most attractive bioreactor as it expressed the highest level (150 μg of reagent g-1), is inexpensive to produce and harvest, poses a minuscule gene flow problem in the field, and the activity of the reagent is largely undiminished in stored grain. This work suggests that barley seed will be an ideal factory for the production of antibodies, diagnostic immunoreagents, vaccines and other pharmaceutical proteins.

High-throughput vectors for efficient gene silencing in plants

A major challenge in the post-genome era of plant biology is to determine the functions of all genes in the plant genome. A straightforward approach to this problem is to reduce or knockout expression of a gene with the hope of seeing a phenotype that is suggestive of its function. Insertional mutagenesis is a useful tool for this type of study but is limited by gene redundancy, lethal knockouts, non-tagged mutants, and the inability to target the inserted element to a specific gene. The efficacy of gene silencing in plants using inverted-repeat transgene constructs that encode a hairpin RNA (hpRNA) has been demonstrated by a number of groups, and has several advantages over insertional mutagenesis. In this paper we describe two improved pHellsgate vectors that facilitate rapid generation of hpRNA-encoding constructs, pHellsgate 4 allows the production of an hpRNA construct in a single step from a single polymerase chain reaction product, while pHellsgate 8 requires a two-step process via an intermediate vector. We show that these vectors are effective at silencing three endogenous genes in Arabidopsis, FLOWERING LOCUS C, PHYTOENE DESATURASE and ETHYLENE INSENSITIVE 2. We also show that a construct of sequences from two genes silences both genes.

Construct design for efficient, effective and high-throughput gene silencing in plants

Post-transcriptional silencing of plant genes using anti-sense or co-suppression constructs usually results in only a modest proportion of silenced individuals. Recent work has demonstrated the potential for constructs encoding self-complementary 'hairpin' RNA (hpRNA) to efficiently silence genes. In this study we examine design rules for efficient gene silencing, in terms of both the proportion of independent transgenic plants showing silencing, and the degree of silencing. Using hpRNA constructs containing sense/anti-sense arms ranging from 98 to 853 nt gave efficient silencing in a wide range of plant species, and inclusion of an intron in these constructs had a consistently enhancing effect. Intron-containing constructs (ihpRNA) generally gave 90-100% of independent transgenic plants showing silencing. The degree of silencing with these constructs was much greater than that obtained using either co-suppression or anti-sense constructs. We have made a generic vector, pHANNIBAL, that allows a simple, single PCR product from a gene of interest to be easily converted into a highly effective ihpRNA silencing construct. We have also created a high-throughput vector, pHELLSGATE, that should facilitate the cloning of gene libraries or large numbers of defined genes, such as those in EST collections, using an in vitro recombinase system. This system may facilitate the large-scale determination and discovery of plant gene functions in the same way as RNAi is being used to examine gene function in Caenorhabditis elegans.

High-efficiency silencing of a β-glucuronidase gene in rice is correlated with repetitive transgene structure but is independent of DNA methylation

Two transgenic callus lines of rice, stably expressing a β-glucuronidase (GUS) gene, were supertransformed with a set of constructs designed to silence the resident GUS gene. An inverted-repeat (i/r) GUS construct, designed to produce mRNA with self-complementarity, was much more effective than simple sense and antisense constructs at inducing silencing. Supertransforming rice calluses with a direct-repeat (d/r) construct, although not as effective as those with the i/r construct, was also substantially more effective in silencing the resident GUS gene than the simple sense and antisense constructs. DNA hybridisation analyses revealed that every callus line supertransformed with either simple sense or antisense constructs, and subsequently showing GUS silencing, had the silence-inducing transgenes integrated into the plant genome in inverted-repeat configurations. The silenced lines containing i/r and d/r constructs did not necessarily have inverted-repeat T-DNA insertions. There was significant methylation of the GUS sequences in most of the silenced lines but not in the unsilenced lines. However, demethylation treatment of silenced lines with 5-azacytidine did not reverse the post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS) of GUS. Whereas the levels of RNA specific to the resident GUS gene were uniformly low in the silenced lines, RNA specific to the inducer transgenes accumulated to a substantial level, and the majority of the i/r RNA was unpolyadenylated. Altogether, these results suggest that both sense- and antisense-mediated gene suppression share a similar molecular basis, that unpolyadenylated RNA plays an important role in PTGS, and that methylation is not essential for PTGS.

Virus resistance and gene silencing : killing the messenger

On occasion, virus-derived transgenes in plants can be poorly expressed and yet provide excellent virus resistance, and transgene constructs designed to supplement the expression of endogenous genes can have the effect of co-suppressing themselves and the endogenous genes. These two phenomena appear to result from the same post-transcriptional silencing mechanism, which operates by targeted-RNA degradation. Recent research into RNA-mediated virus resistance and co-suppression has provided insights into the interactions between plant viruses and their hosts, and spawned several models to explain the phenomenon.

Comparison of promoters and selectable marker genes for use in Indica rice transformation

The effectiveness of different promoters for use in Indica rice transformation was compared. Plasmids encoding the Escherichia coli uidA (gus) gene under the control of CaMV 35S, Emu, Act1 or Ubi1 promoters were delivered into cell suspension cultures by particle bombardment. Transient gene expression, 48 h after delivery, was greatest from plasmids utilising the constitutive promoters, Act1 and Ubi1. Gene expression in stably transformed tissue was examined by bombarding embryogenic Indica rice calli with a pUbil-gus plasmid and a plasmid containing either the selectable marker gene, hph, which confers hygromycin resistance, or bar, which confers resistance to the herbicide phosphinothricin (BASTA) each under the control of the CaMV 35S, Emu, Act1 or the Ubi1 promoters. The bombarded calli were placed on the appropriate selection media and stained for GUS activity at 1 day, 3 weeks and 5 weeks after shooting. Callus bombarded with the pUbi1-hph or the pEmu-hph constructs gave a dramatic increase in the size of the GUS staining areas with time. No such increase in the size of GUS staining areas was observed in calli co-bombarded with pUbi1-gus and any of the bar containing constructs. Co-bombardment of calli with either the pEmu-hph or pUbi1-hph construct and a virus minor coat protein (cp) gene construct resulted in many fertile transgenic Indica rice plants, containing one to eight copies of both the hph and cp genes. These genes were stably inherited by the T 1 generation.